Cylinder Watch Mechanical Restoration

Repair Both of the pivots on the balance staff were broken, and the cylinder was partially bent out of place (see Fig. 1). First the cylinder is carfully bent back into shape, then the staff assembly is press out of the balance wheel (see Fig. 2 and 3).

Figure 1Figure 2Figure 3

The staff is now separated from the wheel (Fig. 4), and plug end pivots are pressed out of the cylinder using a special stake, and now can be measured for patterns to turn new pivots (see Fig. 5).

Figure 4Figure 5

The plates and wheel are now pre-assembled and checked for freedom (See Fig.6).The Plates are then taken apart again, and all of the pivots are inspected. This has revealed that some of the pivots will need to be polished, as signs of wear are apparent. You will also note that there are some nasty dark stains on the brass. I will use a different chemical soaking treatment to attempt to remove these stains as much as possible. The spring barrel is soaked (see Fig. 7) in an attempt to loosen and minimize the stain left from crystalized grease.

Figure 6Figure 7Figure 8Figure 9

Work then moved on to repairing the cylinder pivots, making new ones on the lathe (See Fig. 10). You can see the comparison (see Fig.11) of the broken on the right, and the newly turned one on the left.

If you recall, the cylinder portion of the escapement was crushed. I straightened it, but during installation of one of the plugs, the place were it was bent contained slight fracture. Concerned that this may fail in the future, I decided to go ahead and make a new cylinder on the lathe (see Figs. 12 and 13).